Struggling to build backlinks for your new website? Discover 3 white-hat methods to earn your first 100 backlinks and boost your SEO.
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| Guest blogging is a powerful way to reach a new audience and earn backlinks. Symbolic image: ChicHue |
Earning high-quality backlinks is essential for boosting your website's authority and organic traffic. Backlinks act as votes of confidence from other websites, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Here are 3 white-hat methods to help you build your first 100 backlinks:
White-hat methods for the backlinks
1. Skyscraper Technique 2.0
The Skyscraper Technique involves finding high-performing content in your niche, creating a superior version of it, and then reaching out to websites linking to the original content to suggest yours as a replacement. Here's how to execute this strategy using Ahrefs:
Identify high-performing content: Use Ahrefs' Content Explorer to search for topics relevant to your niche. Filter by organic traffic or referring domains to find content that's already ranking well and attracting backlinks.
Create a superior version: Analyze the top-ranking content to understand its strengths and weaknesses. Conduct your own research to gather fresh data and insights. Create a more comprehensive, informative, and engaging piece of content that surpasses the original.
Outreach for backlinks: Compile a list of websites linking to the original content using Ahrefs' Backlink Checker. Craft personalized outreach emails to website editors, highlighting the strengths of your improved content and how it would provide greater value to their readers.
2. Broken Backlink Building
Broken backlinks are links that point to non-existent pages on another website. By identifying and reporting broken backlinks, you can create opportunities to earn backlinks for your own website. Here's how to leverage Ahrefs for this strategy:
Find broken backlinks: Use Ahrefs' Broken Link Checker to scan websites in your niche for broken links. You can filter by referring domains or URL metrics to prioritize high-authority websites.
Inform the website owner: Contact the website owner and politely inform them about the broken links. Provide the specific URLs of the broken pages and suggest your relevant, high-quality page as a suitable replacement.
Create a win-win situation: By helping website owners fix their broken links, you demonstrate your expertise and provide value. This increases the likelihood of them linking back to your website in exchange for the helpful information.
3. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging involves writing blog posts for other websites in your niche. This is a fantastic way to reach a wider audience, establish yourself as an industry thought leader, and earn valuable backlinks to your website. Here's how to find guest blogging opportunities using Ahrefs:
Identify high-authority websites: Use Ahrefs' Domain Rating (DR) to find high-authority websites in your niche. DR is a metric that scores a website's overall backlink profile strength. Focus on websites with a DR relevant to your own website's backlink profile.
Research content gaps: Analyze the content strategy of these websites to identify potential content gaps. Look for topics that haven't been covered yet or areas where you can offer a unique perspective.
Craft valuable guest post ideas: Develop guest post ideas that align with the website's editorial guidelines and provide value to their target audience. Ensure your content is well-researched, informative, and engaging.
Pitch your guest post: Reach out to the website editor and pitch your guest post idea in a professional email. Highlight your expertise and how your content aligns with their audience's interests.
By following these strategies and focusing on creating high-quality content, you can build a strong backlink profile and improve your website's SEO performance.
Is Backlink Building Important in 2024?
Absolutely! Backlinks remain a crucial factor in SEO success in 2024. Search engines like Google consider backlinks as a sign of trust and authority. The more high-quality backlinks your website has, the more likely it is to rank higher in search results for relevant keywords. While search algorithms have become more sophisticated, focusing on acquiring natural backlinks from reputable sources will continue to be a cornerstone of strong SEO strategy.
Why Focus on 100 Backlinks as a First Milestone?
Building backlinks is a marathon, not a sprint. While acquiring a large number of backlinks quickly might seem tempting, it's more important to focus on quality over quantity. Earning 100 high-quality backlinks from relevant websites is a significant achievement for a new website and can provide a solid foundation for SEO success. Here's why:
Establishing Trust and Authority:
Each high-quality backlink acts as a vote of confidence from another website, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. By accumulating 100 such backlinks, you begin to build a strong reputation and establish your website as an authority figure within your niche.
Natural Ranking Boost:
Search engines use backlinks as one of the key factors to determine a website's ranking for relevant search terms. With 100 relevant backlinks, you're more likely to experience a gradual but sustainable improvement in your website's ranking for targeted keywords. This increased visibility can lead to more organic traffic and attract even more high-quality backlinks over time.
Focus on Content Strategy:
The process of acquiring 100 backlinks inherently encourages you to develop a strong content strategy. Reaching out to other websites often involves creating link-worthy content that resonates with your target audience. By prioritizing high-quality content, you lay a solid foundation for future SEO efforts and attract backlinks naturally.
What are the Harmful Sources of Backlinks?
Not all backlinks are created equal. In fact, some backlinks can actually harm your website's SEO performance. Here are some red flags to watch out for:
Low-quality directories and link farms: These websites are often filled with spammy content and have little to no organic traffic. Links from these sources can hurt your website's reputation and potentially trigger penalties from search engines.
Paid link schemes: Buying or selling backlinks is a clear violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. If caught, your website can be penalized or even removed from search results altogether.
Scraped content websites: These websites automatically generate low-quality content and often contain backlinks to unrelated websites. Links from scraped content sites offer no SEO value and can be detrimental to your ranking.
Which is Better, SEO or Ads?
There's no simple answer to this question. SEO and paid advertising (Ads) are both powerful tools for driving traffic to your website, but they serve different purposes:
SEO is a long-term strategy. It takes time and effort to build a strong SEO foundation, but once in place, the benefits can be long-lasting and organic. Organic traffic from SEO tends to be more targeted and engaged, leading to better conversion rates.
Paid Ads offer immediate results. You can quickly start driving traffic to your website as soon as your ads are launched. Paid ads are a great way to target specific keywords and demographics, making them ideal for short-term campaigns or promoting new products or services.
The ideal approach is often a combination of SEO and Ads. By utilizing both strategies, you can enjoy the long-term benefits of organic traffic from SEO while leveraging the immediate reach of paid advertising. This combination allows you to diversify your traffic sources, target specific audiences, and ultimately maximize your website's visibility and potential for growth.
Remember, quality over quantity is essential. Earning backlinks from high-authority websites in your niche will have a more significant impact on your website's SEO than acquiring a large number of low-quality backlinks.